It’s springtime in Wisconsin, when days lengthen and temperatures rise. Gardeners and farmers are planting, ball players are in the fields, and anglers are on the water. With more outdoor activities come more severe weather risks, but a group of University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers is providing new tools to help everyone make better weather-based decisions.

Wisconsin’s Environmental Mesonet, Wisconet for short, is a statewide network of weather and soil monitoring stations launched by UW–Madison in 2023. Researchers use the network to fill weather data gaps and develop new web-based tools for the public. The work is supported by the USDA-funded Rural Partnerships Institute and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

“We wanted to turn the data from Wisconet into support tools for Wisconsinites; our new website is the result of those efforts,” says Chris Vagasky, Wisconet manager in the UW–Madison Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences. “The most exciting thing about the new website is the speed at which it updates. New data come in every 10 minutes, whereas other weather apps update current conditions only once or twice an hour.”

Data on the new Wisconet website is also coming directly from weather station readings rather than the modeled or predicted values seen in standard phone apps. The site provides dozens of maps, and its dashboards help visitors make decisions about outdoor or agricultural activities. Historic station data are also available to download. And it’s all available for free.

Outdoor dashboards include data about rainfall, wind speed, temperatures and active hazards for specific locations. Each dashboard has its own direct link that users can bookmark for easy access and repeat visits.

For farmers and others working in agriculture, the agricultural dashboards integrate multiple products to be a one-stop shop for planning. A variety of necessary data, including the latest growing degree day accumulation (a measure of heat accumulation that helps forecast plant growth and insect emergence) or the temperature-humidity index for cattle comfort, is right at a user’s fingertips and in a mobile-friendly format for easy use in the field. Additional useful dashboards are being developed and will be added to the site.

Wisconet draws data from 61 systems across the state, with 19 more coming this year, ensuring that every Wisconsin county has at least one weather station. Data from new stations will appear on the website shortly after they are installed.

“Our latest release of the Wisconet website introduces powerful new tools that integrate Wisconet data with NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] and National Weather Service datasets, providing valuable insights for agriculture and weather,” explains Izzy Bogot, Wisconet web developer. “These tools are designed for free and easy access on any web-enabled device, ensuring users stay informed anytime, anywhere.”

The new Wisconet website can be found at https://wisconet.wisc.edu.

This work is supported by the Institute for Rural Partnerships, a program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this release are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.